Chef Coach: "They have the Mind of Children"

15.09.2006

He's always in a hurry, the agile men with a goatee beard. He does not really have time because he is on his way to the next team meeting. Willi Breuer is chef coach of the German disabled national team, which reached the semi final of the INAS-FID Football 2006 World Championship for the Disabled. REHACARE.de talked to Willi Breuer about his impressions of the tournament and his work with the players who all have a learning disability.

REHACARE.de: Mister Breuer, you are head coach of the German team at the Football World Championship of People with Disabilities. Since when do you do this job and how did you get it?

Willi Breuer: I have been working for 20 years in a sheltered workshop. Furthermore, I have been coaching the younger players at the 1. FC Köln (German football club playing in the first league). When in 1992 the German Association for Disability Sports asked me, if I wanted to organise a German team together with them and to accompany them to an international match in Spain, I agreed. Since then I have been involved.


REHACARE.de: How do you combine your work as head coach and your real job?

Willi Breuer: This would not be possible without a high level of tolerance from my employers. I spend two or three hours a day only on giving interviews at the moment.

REHACARE.de: What is the difference between working with disabled and non disabled players?

Willi Breuer: There are huge differences: Working with the boys is comparable to working with children or youngsters. You have to explain everything clearly and in kind of pictures they can imagine in order to make the players understand. They learn by watching examples. It means that they have to experience tactics practically before learning them in theory. And that only to a certain degree because we do not want to ask too much of them. Thus, match processes have to be practised over and over again.

REHACARE.de: From time to time the players show very strong emotions. How do you react to these emotional releases?

Willi Breuer: They have the mind of children. Often you have to be responsive to the reactions. Actually, it happens frequently that a player reacts quite extreme and does not want to go on playing that moment or that he gets angry. We have to quiet them down gently. However, it can also happen that one of the boys is not allowed to train with the others for a little while.




REHACARE.de: How are the players looked after during the Championship?

Willi Breuer: This time we are supported by a large supporting team with ten members as we wished. Six of them also work in sheltered workshops. Three physiotherapists are on board and a psychologist for at least three days a week.

REHACARE.de: Do the players' parents help you?

Willi Breuer: Two or three of the boys have parents who support them - that is a reflection of our society. Other parents partly do not care what their children do. Those are often accompanied by carers.

REHACARE.de: What was the most beautiful moment for you and your team during the tournament?

Willi Breuer: There have been a lot of nice moments. But one was very special: the opening match in Duisburg. You should have seen the players' faces! Their excitement when they sat in the changing room where otherwise their idols from the FIFA national team change clothes. There, they also met Christoph Daum, who supported them as co-manager. And then the moment when they ran onto the pitch under the eyes of the huge number of cheering fans. Those were very special moments.

REHACARE.de: How does the team react on the big media hype around them?

Willi Breuer: Compliments to the media this time. They deal fairly with everyone. It is not too much for the boys. The positive press coverage is motivating. It surely could have happened that the various journalists would intimidate them. But they feel comfortable and get more and more self-confident. Also, with the journalists' help we attract the attention of the public. We need that. There is too little financial support for our sport. To give an example: The daily rate for us carers averages 25 to 56 euros.

REHACARE.de: Is the position of the team that insecure?

Willi Breuer: At the moment we do have the attention we need. However, the future does not seem too bright: We only have around two or three training courses and matches a year. That is too few to hold up the standard of this tournament which would be important to give the team a perspective for the future.

REHACARE.de: What motivates you to do this job under these difficult circumstances?

Willi Breuer: I embosomed the boys. It could not be otherwise. This whole thing is a great challenge and sometimes it is hard. Without an emotional relationship to the boys this would not be possible.

REHACARE.de: Will you continue to train this team?

Willi Breuer: That depends on how it is going to go on with them.

REHACARE.de

- More information about 4. INAS-FID Football 2006 World Championship at: www.inas-fid-wm2006.com